Elder Lindquist 9/16/09

Hey all how's life? I hope everyone had a great week ours went pretty well. The baptism went really well on Saturday and we tried to stay busy this whole week making sure everything is in order because in interviews president told me he was probably going to whitewash Torres, (he likes to whitewash areas.) and he did. So we're making sure everything is in order for the new elders that arrive. Well we got transfer calls yesterday and I'm getting transferred even farther north almost to the border of the Porto mission! It's a city the same size as Beja and Torres Vedras called Caldas da Rainha. I'm way excited because I've heard lots and lots of good things about this area. The branch is small but the members are great, and that area has some of the coolest castles in Portugal. Elder Wheeler is going down to Mafra ha-ha different area but the same branch. I'm really bummed to leave Torres because I really love the people here they are amazing and I'm going to miss them a lot but I'm excited to go up to Caldas. My companion is from California, (another one) his name is Elder Larson and he's from Brea California. Well today we're going to a place called Cabo da Roca with the elders from Cacém, Cabo is the furthest point in western Europe so that should be fun. I'll send pictures from the baptism and such, I'll let you know what my address is there in Caldas so you can send the shoes there, or you can send them to the office if you want. I'm glad you guys liked the package, have a great week!
-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 9/9/09

So this week went really well. Ha I've been waiting all week to tell you guys but last Wednesday night we met up with Teresa and she informed us that she had received an answer to her prayer concerning her baptism. So she let us know that she wants to be baptized this coming Saturday, it's a really cool story of how it all came together but one to be told in person and not typed out. That was the biggest thing we encouraged her to do was to search prayerfully for an answer and she received a sign. We're very happy about that, all I can say is God loves his children and answers their prayers. And I know that miracles are real. We had a fun day on Saturday, our ward mission leader got married and we partied it up at the reception, Teresa also insisted on taking us out to a nice restaurant Saturday night; so we ate pretty well on Saturday needless to say. Well we have a lot of good investigators but most of them have a hard time going to church. That is probably the biggest barrier we have and unfortunately it's the barrier that keeps people from being baptized. But we try our best to get people there without destroying their agency. We found some cool people this week, it's pretty cool when plans fall through then you have to go with another option and you end up finding amazing new investigators. It's funny how the spirit works. Well this stupid computer is telling me it's going to shut down in a second but did you guys get your package? Well have a great week we're going to the driving range with the rest of our district today. This next week we will know if I'm getting transferred. I'm nervous but excited. Tchau pessoal!-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 9/2/09

So this week went well, it's really cool to see people progress it's one of my favorite things to see. The baptism didn't go through. Teresa was really nervous and didn't think she was ready to make that commitment. She continues to progress, we had a family night with her on Monday and we played a game I made that reviews the restoration it was really fun and we had some good laughs. It was a bummer but she'll still be baptized soon when she feels completely ready. (She is ready she just got scared). So Saturday was a rough day it was very hot and we were both exhausted. We were getting shut down all day. We went to the other side of town to teach Sister Maria Regina and after that (about 7:30) we didn't have much to do. I was like I feel like we should do some finding in Bairro Boavista (which is another 30 minute walk from where we were) Elder Wheeler looks at me like you've got to be kidding me, but we decided to go. We started walking up the long road that led to that part of town and we decided to start knocking those apartments. Everyone was treating us like trash and I was getting a little annoyed, so I was like should we keep knocking here or go up to the Bairro? Elder Wheeler was like I don't care, so we decided to keep knocking. A few doors later I knocked on a house and a younger lady answered. She was a little hesitant to talk to us at first and let us know that they were eating dinner I jokingly said "oh cool do you have room for two more? I'm starving" (I really was because I slept during our hour for dinner) she laughed and was like do you want to come eat with us?! I looked at Elder Wheeler and we both shrugged our shoulders and I was like sure. So we go in and there's a table full of people in their living room, so they found space for us and preceded to hand us plate after plate of food. It was awesome. After desert we talked to them about the Book of Mormon and left them a few copies, they wanted us to write our testimonies in them so we did and we left that house walking on clouds. It's funny how the days can shift so quickly. I definitely know that our Heavenly Father had our back that day because it wasn't going very well and he was aware of that so he gave us a nice tender mercy. So last night we had a lesson with our African investigator Vanessa. She is so sick! She's on chapter 11 of 1st Nephi and we had a great lesson talking about the tree of life vision and all this good stuff. I told her that she's going to like chapter 13 because it describes the church of the devil and I was like pay attention to the characteristics I'm pretty sure you'll be able to decipher which church it is. She was excited about that. Well today we're going to Sintra with our Zone it's going to be sick. Elder Wheeler has never been so it will be a good day. I hope you had good birthdays Mom and Dad the package should get there in about a week. Take it easy and study/work hard! Love vosso querido Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 8/26/09

So this last week went great we're making, I should say attempt-ing to make the final preparations for the baptism and we're a little stressed out but I hope it goes well for Teresa she is an awesome lady. The baptism will be held in Mem Martins, (an hour and a half or so from our area) we got permission from Pres. Torgan to do it in the ocean but unfortunately our stake shut us down. Oh well. I don't really remember a lot that happened this week my mind has been pretty scattered, we've just been working with the members a lot to teach Teresa and some other people so things are going good. Wow how the mission is a rollercoaster. It's crazy I can't explain but sometimes it feels like the end of the world but then sometimes you are floating up in the clouds because people are so grateful to you for showing them the truth. We really are instruments in the Lords hands in the mission field that is something that is really cool to me. I'm really grateful for the conversion of my family into the church just one generation ago because that is now rippling to other people that will create generations of other members in the church, and who knows how long the ripple will last. It's cool to think that the ripple of my grandparent’s conversion would spread across the Atlantic Ocean. There is nothing in the world cooler than being a missionary. The script writers for Billy Madison messed up the old lady should have said "if serving a mission is cool consider me Miles Davis". So the B-day went well, thank you all for the packages, letters and emails. Well I feel that this will be the last transfer that I will stay in Torres Vedras but I'm going to continue working hard in this area until I leave, It's cool to see the progress of this area since it opened and it's cool to think that with the Lords help Torres Vedras will have its first baptism in over 10 years. One day there will be a branch here, then a ward, then a stake. Nothing can stop this work from progressing I testify of that. ~Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 8/19/09

Hey sounds like summer is wrapping up well for you guys. This last week went really well for us here and I hope things continue to go well for all of us. Count your many blessings right? There are more than we can imagine. Well the other day we had a family night in our investigator Teresa's house with about five members and we marked her for baptism. She should get baptized in a few weeks and I received permission from President Torgan to realize the baptism in the ocean so we'll see if that's where she wants to do it. These members have been such a help to us, if it wasn't for the members Teresa wouldn't have progressed. Well I should say wasn't progressing I tried for two months to get her to come to church and she never did then the Sunday after we had a lesson with her at the members house she came and was also there this last Sunday. So we're grateful for the members help and we're excited about that. Ha this morning we were doing personal study and we got a buzz at the door, Elder Wheeler jumped up like he always does and was like Yes! A package! So he ran out and shut the door. I was like what do you think you're doing you crazy man and got up to chase after him. When I opened the door he was standing in the hall with Elder Nair and his companion Elder Thomas. They traveled from Cacém to surprise me and play golf with us. So that was really fun we're going to go after we do email and eat. Oh the other day we were knocking some building and this 50 year old not so skinny woman came to the door and was like hello my dears. And I was like hi we're missionaries and we'd like to talk to you about Jesus Christ and immediately she was like do you want to come to bed with me. I was like Guh! My answer was no but that we could teach her how she could be forgiven of her sins. She declined, so that was interesting I've never knocked into a prostitute before and I hope it doesn't happen again. Well I hope you have a nice transition from summer to school/work, I miss you all and thank you for your support. I really love serving a mission it is by far the best decision I've ever made. -Elder Lindquistinho

Elder Lindquist 8/12/09

Hey all tudo bem? Sounds like you guys have had a great week Elder Wheeler and I were stoked about that article that talked about Dallan that was sick. Well we're in Cacém right now (we had a huge BBQ at the chapel here) and we have to catch a train soon so this will be quick. We already had zone conference it was cool and we had a good week with some awesome lessons. One lesson in particular with our investigator Vanesa she said near the beginning of the lesson "since you guys have started teaching us these things and since I've started reading the Book of Mormon we have felt a big difference in our home" she explained that she feels better and feels more peace and she also said she was talking with her mom (who attends the lessons about half the time) and her mom recognized it too it was cool. Because she just brought it up we didn't say anything. They would be baptized soon if they would just come to church! Oh and there's a lady that we've been teaching who said the Book of Mormon is worth more than all the riches in the world. That was pretty cool; we plan on marking her soon. So anyway things are going good, a few missionaries came in this transfer that I know through other people. A DRUMMER from Lindon that is in a band called shake and Echo who is good friends with the band the highwire act who we played many shows with. So that was sick to talk to him at zone conference and he was at the BBQ today. Also a guy from Elk Ridge (Elder Thaught) I've been to his house a few times that was weird. But yeah this transfer is going really good We stayed in cacém the other day before zone conference and I got to teach with my home boy Elder Nair, and today at the BBQ there was like half of our district so that was cool. I really like Torres Vedras the work is going good and I love the people there we have a lot of fun Elder Wheeler reminds me of a mix of Dallan and Jake it's crazy. I hope you all have a good week, next p-day we're going golfing at a professional course that is about 5 minutes from our house we already went there to do the driving range but now we're playing the real deal, (my first time playing golf is going to be in Portugal how funny is that?) so take it easy every one I've got to go catch a train. -Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 8/5/09

Hey all how's it going? Sounds like summer is flying by for you just like the time is flying by for me. Thanks for the package it was awesome; I also received a birthday package from Elder Wheelers family this morning that had some goodies as well. So transfers. Elder Wheeler and I are staying together; we're the only ones in the entire zone that didn't get separated. I felt like I needed to stay one more so I'm happy that I'm still here I love this area. Transfers were insane though like six areas were whitewashed, (both elders taken out at the same time) and tons of crazy changes that no one expected but some cool people are coming to our zone including my home boy elder Nair from the MTC and Elder Coombs is coming to be my new zone leader, oh the great times I had with him down in Beja and Evora. So I'm excited about that. So our branch got back last week from their trip to the temple in Madrid, Spain. Our stake took three tour buses there and 100 adults went and 60 youth so that was cool, soon enough Portugal will have a temple here and the members won't have to travel 8 hours to get there. Wow how I took for the granted a temple 20 minutes from my house. So things are going good with our investigators. But a lot of people are gone for summer break so it's a little bit harder to find appointments and get people to church. But a young couple moved in from Braga, Portugal to our branch and they live about 10 minutes away so we're really excited to have some people that are willing and ready to help us teach! The other day Elder Wheeler and I were cleaning the chapel and we missed the last bus back to Torres Vedras so we caught a bus to stay overnight with the Elders in Mofra, (we weren't going to sleep on the chapel floor again). We decided to play a trick on the elders so I wrote a letter, (supposedly from their landlord) saying that I have to sell the apartment due to financial problems and that they have to move out by the end of this weekend and we dropped it in their mailbox and went and made contacts until it was time to go in. So we got to their house and they were all stressing out and was hilarious. We didn't tell them till the next morning when we left. Well I really love the mission and my companion. I'm learning a lot, missions are not just about working hard but reaching your full potential. We have to strive every day to fulfill our full potential that our heavenly father has in store for us. Have a great week.-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 7/29/09

Hey how's it going all? I had a good week things are going well. We’re doing email later because the site was down and we spent all day buying ties. I splurged and got about 5 but don't worry they're way sweet (not just grey and brown like all my other ones) but yeah I hope you like the picture I sent they are really cool. We had our first interviews with President Torgan a couple days ago which went well. The rules haven't changed all that much other than the number of times investigators have to go to church in order to be baptized and we can't play soccer anymore. So I'm pretty much sick of fleas by now, we're catching them weekly and I have about 7 taped in my journal, the biggest is about the size of a piece of rice or something. But yeah they drive me crazy! Well I don't have a lot to say. We're working hard and quite a few people are progressing but they have busy schedules so it's very difficult to keep up during the week and then the weekend is way busy usually. Elder Wheeler's feet are exploding with blisters. He also scared the crap out of me with two pan lids which luckily he got on film. We also made ribs last Friday that was probably the best meal I've had in my life. Well everyone have a great week and stay well I'll be expecting over 100 letters for my birthday this year (Only in my dreams) I know this church is true and has a living prophet that has authority as restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. God is our Heavenly Father and he loves us. And I know Jesus Christ is our Savior. I love being a representative of him and trying to do what he would do if he were here. com muito amor, Elder Lindqüist

Elder Lindquist 7/22/09

Hey! Sounds like you guys had a good week, congrats on the Home run Dallan that's awesome. It has been pretty hot here as well, (it's ok though because we gain hot wife points for having to be in the heat all day, getting blisters, getting shot in the head by an airsoft gun, etc...) So this week was great, last P-day we went to the driving range as a district and with our zone leaders so that was a blast. Elder Wheeler and I decided if I stay next transfer were going to play a full game of golf the p-day before my birthday, (on the 19th). So we didn't find as many people this week but some of the people we've found in the past couple weeks have been progressing really well. We had a meeting with Cristina and her daughter Vanessa last night and Vanessa has been reading the Book of Mormon and highlighting things in the pamphlets we leave them so that's exciting. She also brought her Book of Mormon to work the other day and was explaining everything to her colleagues and also her family members so that is awesome. The only problem is she doesn't like churches and she likes to sleep in so it's hard to get her to come to church but we'll get her there. That's one of the difficulties we're having, almost everyone we teach loves the Book of Mormon but they're too lazy to come to church, (due to the early hour) or they have to work. It's sad but I know God is preparing people to accept completely the gospel, (including the early hour of church). We found this middle aged couple that is way cool, (she's Brazilian and he's Portuguese) and initially he didn't really want anything to do with us because he's "not a religious person" but now he loves us and has started reading the Book of Mormon. They asked if they could feed us lunch or dinner and it was funny because they were all shy and scared to ask but then we were like of course you can! We’ll bring the desert! So yeah this week was great we had plans to go to Santa Cruz today to write letters on the cliffs overlooking the beach but it's raining right now :( But we'll probably go next week the view there is amazing! I want to stay here I love Torres Vedras, I know we can get some baptisms going this place has so much potential and things are going really good. I hope you all have a good week keep on being awesome!-Elder Linguiça.

Elder Lindquist 7/15/09

So this week was crazy awesome, like some of the coolest stuff has happened. So a few weeks ago we found an African family and were able to teach about the restoration and the other day we went back to talk more about the Book of Mormon. The cousin was there so we had one of the daughters explain the restoration to her cousin; she taught it way better than I could ever do. Then we taught and testified about the power that the Book of Mormon contains, and bore testimony of how we can receive an answer. The daughter and cousin were both like "I want to receive an answer like that"! They were talking to each other like lets read it tonight together and all this stuff it was sick because usually it's like pulling teeth to have people fulfill the invites we extend but they were way excited about it, it was cool. Then the other morning on Saturday we went to teach Maria Regina and her sister/sisters husband and remarked them for baptism. On the way home (we were really close to our house) I saw a Brazilian lady walking with her daughter, both of them was carrying tons of grocery bags so I stopped and asked the mother if we could help them. The daughter saw us and ran away, but the mother looked at me and saw me holding the Book of Mormon, she was like OH! Is this a book of Mormon? My friend gave me one of these books ten years ago! She explained that a colleague from work moved to France but before she left she gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon with her testimony written on the cover. So of course I jumped all over that and we invited her to church, (both her kids are baptized in the Assembly of God church and she's preparing to be baptized there but said she would LOVE to come to church). So we took her bags and walked with her to the bus station and talked about church. She lives in a little village on the way to the chapel so we stopped to get her on the way. Her and her daughter walked out wearing dresses and her son walked out wearing a shirt tie and slacks. My jaw just about dropped, investigators never wear that stuff the first visit at church. Ha so on the way to the chapel she was like I hope you don't mind that we invited a friend from our church to come as well, I was like of course we don't mind. So then in second hour the gospel principles teacher told the story of how the Elders found him and then after that Rosária, (the woman) starts basically bearing her testimony of how we found her and when we talked to her the day before she felt that we were men of God and that she felt like we were lead to her. It was sick! So yesterday we had district meeting and then divisions with the zone leaders and Elder Marriot, (the stud muffin) and I went to visit them. Her daughter sang a gospel song for us then Elder Marriot and I sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" and we taught them about prophets and authority. Near the end of the lesson the Uncle dropped by, (who happens to be the vice president of their church) and we had a great conversation and explained how the mission goes for these two years and everything then we all ate some Brazilian food it was awesome. So that was just a little bit of my week. How are things going for you guys? Sounds like things are pretty busy for it being summer time. Well Elder Wheeler is awesome, he's from Glendora California. We like to quote Nacho libre a lot and I got him hooked on a lot of fattening foods here.. Descula la familia wheeler mas o seu filho vai ser um gordinho quando ele voltar..So yeah basically my message for this week (as you can see in the pattern of my stories) is that the Book of Mormon is awesome. If you aren't reading it every day, do it (I'll try and apply this invite too) but it really does have a huge impact on peoples conversion process, as it was with yours right dad? Didn't a colleague give one to Grandma Lindquist before the missionaries passed by? Well my invite is to talk to someone about the Book of Mormon this week because you don't know if the impact will be made that night, or ten years down the road, but an impact will be made. ~Have a great week, Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 7/8/09

Hey how's it going all! We had a great week, well I should say an awesome week and it sounds like yours was great also. Hey dad you misunderstood my last email we didn't get 10 investigators for the week that was only in one day. We continued working hard throughout the week and by the end of the week we had 23 new investigators. It was amazing. It's awesome what you can accomplish with the help of the Lord. We broke the record and we were really excited. Elder Wheeler is a stud I love serving with him we have a lot of fun. His personality is a lot like that of Jake's, so I feel like I'm serving with Jake haha. We had our first zone conference the other day with our new mission president, President Moroni Torgan. He's a great man, and really funny too. You should read about him on Google or something he's done a lot of cool stuff for Brazil as well as for the church. He came into the church because Elder Faust baptized his great-grandmother, cool huh? Well we've continued teaching some great people and things are going really good. Elder Wheeler and I made a goal that we will have 10 baptisms by the end of August and we just ended our fast for that so I have a feeling things will continue moving forward with great leaps and bounds. The other day we were working in São pedro da cadeira until later in the day and our bus, (the last one that passed through that small town) didn't show up, so we ended up spending the night sleeping on the floor in the chapel. This was not the most comfortable night of my life but at least I wasn't bit by any fleas. We recently watched a "presidents of the church" documentary on Joseph Smith and it made me realize that one night on the floor didn't compare to the several months he spent in the jail floor so I appreciated his sacrifice more after that. I don't know when father’s day was because it's different here but happy father’s day Dad I love ya. I never remember when holidays are in America. In fact we forgot about the fourth of July the other day.. It wasn't until we saw an American food sale at a grocery store here that we remembered. Oh and yes we heard about the death of Michael Jackson all the drunks here were freaking out about that. I thought oh man uncle Kyle must be tearing up right now. Well we're in Mofra today doing a sick P-day as a district and after this we're going to go to the big convent. (I'm the only one in the district who's already been there) and next week we're doing another joint P-day as a district as well as with our zone leaders and I think we might go golfing in Torres Vedras so we're excited for next week. But yeah everything is going great here the area is exploding and Elder Wheeler speaks great (like as well as I did in my second or third transfer). So yeah have a great week everyone. Love Elder Jordão Lindquist

Hey all how's it going? This week was pretty sweet I got my new companion on Thursday his name is Elder Wheeler and he's from the LA area in California. We have the same taste in music and movies and he's really into extreme sports. I'll send a picture of us on Thursday. We've been tearing it up this week we found ten new investigators on Monday. All of which were Brazilians, (note: we didn't find ten investigators my whole stay in Beja) so things are going really good in this area. We're setting up kind of a schedule where we are visiting the little cities and villages outside of Torres Vedras and that is going very well. Our branch president has felt very strongly that we need to do that and it's working very well. So on Sunday President and Sister Terry came to visit our branch and after we all ate at a member’s house. This was their last Sunday so that was cool to spend it with them. President Torgan arrived last night and we have our first zone conference with him on Monday so we're all pretty excited. I really like training its fun, Elder Wheeler speaks really well so it isn't extremely difficult. But yeah a lot of cool stuff happened this last week. The other day we passed by some people during the afternoon and no one was home, I had a feeling we needed to go to the park. I thought why the park that's clear on the other side of town, but we went there not knowing why. We got there and it was full of people, I was kind of thinking ok heavenly father help us find the person we need to talk to. I looked to my right and saw a man sitting on a bench alone, I felt that we should talk to him so we went over and asked if we could sit by him to talk about Jesus Christ. He quickly welcomed us to sit down. As we talked to him he explained that he knew the elders ten years ago when they were in Torres Vedras and that he came close to being baptized. This surprised me a lot. So yeah we got his information it'll be hard to meet with him because he lives in a place where I don't think we have transport to but that was a cool experience. So many things happen like that throughout the week I can't even tell you all of them. But I do know that Christ is leading us to his elect by way of his spirit. And not everyone progress but we still feel good that we did the best we could do. Like in the story in 1st Nephi chapter 3 and 4. It took them several attempts to obtain the plates and even when they brought their best (the second attempt when they brought all the gold and silver) their attempt still failed. But the Lord eventually provided a way for them to fulfill the commandment that was given to them by their father Lehi. Sometimes we bring our best to the lessons and things still go bad, but I know that eventually the Lord will open up a way for these people to accept the truth. Whether it's tomorrow or five years from now. Hope y'all have a good week we're doing fine here in Torres. Com muito muito amor..Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 6/24/09

Hey everyone sounds like ya'll had a pretty busy week and the week ahead sounds pretty busy too. That's cool, it's better to be busy than bored right? Well I'll just get the big news off my shoulders right now then I can type this thing. Elder Peterson is being transferred to Lisbon area to be a zone leader and I've been called to take his place as District Leader. Oh and I'm TRAINING too. Ha I'm way excited I did not expect either of those things to happen but yeah tomorrow morning I'll go to the office to get my greeny. It feels like just yesterday that I was trained there in Beja. But yeah that's the news with transfers. Oh and Elder Tipton got called to serve out in the Azores with the first kid he trained. He trained him in Beja and had about the same number of transfers as me. I'm really excited it's going to be sick to train in Torres it's a great area with so much potential were going to tear it up with that greeny fire! So we played soccer in Lisbon with about 15 elders today it was way fun. We've been working really hard there in Torres and we're always tired but things are going really good. We got to eat breakfast with Elder Peterson's sister the other morning (she was in Europe and decided to swing by) and she's going to leave for a mission before he gets home so president gave us permission. So right now we're about to go have a sweet BBQ in the house of our zone leaders because Elder Oliveira is leaving tomorrow, (they live with some members) so it will be sick. Then tomorrow morning we'll head to the office and split our separate ways. I love these missionaries they're awesome. They've really helped me grow as a missionary in the last two transfers I've been here. Well I don't know what else to say today. I'm mostly just nervous, anxious, and excited about this transfer. It will be sweet. Tu tens jeito meu! Have fun at Park City I'll be soaking up the sun here in Torres.
Well have a good week everyone.-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 6/17/09

Hey thanks for the weekly emails it's always a great hour to read and hear from you guys. Holy smokes this transfer is going by fast. We only have like one more week its crazy. Elder Peterson says he has a feeling he's leaving but I want him to stay, ele é realmente boeia de fixe! So it has been pretty hot here recently and we've been doing a lot of finding in little towns outside our area so we've been doing a lot of walking. The past two days I feel like I've been hit by a train. We're pretty tired but we're working hard and loving Torres Vedras. I have a pretty funny tan line. A collar line on my neck, (which with a regular shirt on looks ridiculous) a farmers tan at my elbow and then a long sleeve shirt line. So we've been battling the little devils in our house that have been biting the poop out of us, (which are not fleas but another type of small bug that we got from one of our investigators houses.) I've only been able to catch one and it was a wrestle, they're sneaky little buggers. I taped him in my journal, ha!So this last week we had a huge number of investigators, we beat our district goal. Now it's just a manner of getting those people to "stick" and actually progress. But I've seen that when someone has stopped in their progress that was doing fairly well and you drop them the Lord makes up for it and you're able to find new people to teach. We found a great Brazilian family on Sunday and they are really nice and a family that has a son that's a member who lives in England and they have a really good view of the church because it "saved" their son/brother from the path he was on so we're excited to continue visiting with them. Ha the other day we stopped by the Igreja Maná (we wanted to see the miracles they do where the people pay the pastor like 50 bucks and he beats them in the head and they're supposedly healed) but unfortunately we only had time to stay for the music at the beginning. It was pretty funny Elder Peterson and I was grooving out dancing around and one part of the song the lady singer was like raise up your bible! This is your tool your weapon, use it against the enemies of God! I look over and Elder Peterson is holding up the Book of Mormon, ha it was classic. I know without a doubt that this is the true church of Christ, he is the head of this church and there is a living prophet called by him on the earth today. I see daily, how lost people are. It is so plain in my eyes the truthfulness of this message. I know of with conviction that this church is true. And even though we don't have thousands of baptisms in this part of the world as it says in 1 Corinthians chapter one I was called of God not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That is my greatest desire right now and it's a pretty awesome privilege to have a name tag on my chest that also includes the name of the Savior. So today we're kicking back for P-day after tons of crazy ones this last transfer we're just going to chill and play tennis. I hope you all have a great week,Com muito amor..-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 6/11/09

Hey all how's it going? This week was sick! We were so busy oh my goodness, sometimes the things I miss most is just a nap or simply just hanging out at the house, ha the simple days. So we had a good week even though we've got fleas in our apartment now. But we will destroy those suckers. So the reason I didn't send an email yesterday was because we had an activity with our stake called "day of the youth" all the youth got together with their friends at the stake center in oeiras and first they had them rotate from classroom to classroom while us missionaries taught a short lesson. Then we had lunch (which sat horribly in my stomach and I ended up spending half the talent show in the bathroom later that day). Then after lunch they had a talent show of the missionaries! Elder Peterson, Elder Marriot, Elder Oliveira, and I played "Island in the sun" by Weezer, foi boeia de fixe! We opened the show and the crowd loved it. I sang, Elder P and Elder M played guitars and Elder Oliveira played the scissors. Yes, the scissors and danced around. We were messing around in their house the night before and we decided to have him play that so it was pretty funny. There was also a bunch of magic tricks preformed by a native missionary that is from Portugal, he is 28 and was a professional magician before the mission. Then later all the missionaries preformed the Hakka (the Tongan war cry dance) for everyone, then Elder Peterson taught the crowd how to do it. Then we had dinner and took off. It was a way fun day. Then we stayed with the zone leaders again last night because we had interviews with president today, (our last one with President Terry). So we'll finally make it back to our area after we do Internet here today. So yeah we took P-day on Tuesday, and then had the activity on Wednesday and interviews today. It has been a crazy week oh I forgot to mention that for p-day on Tuesday we went to the huge mall in Lisbon, (Columbo) and ate at a Brazilian resturante and went bowling.. It has been forever since I've Bowled but I still managed to win one of the three games we played. Too bad it wasn't the game that we bet a sundae on. Well the work is going good in Torres, the baptisms didn't go through on Saturday due to complications with the marriage, but we have patience and Maria de Graça has incredible faith so her and her daughter will get baptized eventually. Paulo disappeared for a while but we found him the other day. His life is pretty complicated but I have faith that he'll be able to overcome the difficulties he's facing so he can get baptized. Ate já, ficam bem!-Elder Lindquist

So this week was crazy so I'll try and remember all the stuff that went on. We were all over the place. So the craziness started on Saturday when we had service in Mofra, there's a brother there that has back problems so we went there to help him with his back yard. He has a bunch of trash back there and these shacks he built with a bunch of different stuff and the purpose of the service were basically to get rid of everything so he can expand his garden. It was the funniest service I've ever done. We all just grabbed like a metal bar or a shovel and started beating the tar out of these shacks, it was so fun to destroy all that stuff we had a good time. But next week is going to stink because we have to haul all the debris away. Later that day we went up north to a city called Santa Cruz, It's basically a little party town that's right next to the beach and we have some inactive members there that we went to find. OH MY GOODNESS that water looked so refreshing and it was hot as a mug so we were just dying to take a dip as we walked along the ocean. It reminded me of California, (except the beach was better here) and I got saudades demais! It was a good trip, we only found one of the three members we were looking for but strangely enough we ran into someone we contacted in Torres Vedras a couple of weeks ago and we were clear out in a small town away from the beach that only has a few houses it was so crazy. Portugal is a small country but I don't think that that was by chance. So yeah basically it's getting really hot here, (probably is there too huh?) and with the humidity here it's ridiculous. I just lay on top of my blankets at night feeling like I have lotion all over my body but it's just the thickness of the air. So yesterday our Zone Leaders came to do divisions with us and after our district meeting I stayed in São Pedro da cadeira with Elder Oliveira, (a native from Brazil). He's such a funny guy and a great missionary. He doesn't speak English besides a few phrases like "freaking heck man", so that was fun to spend the day with a nativo. At night we were walking up to teach Maria Reginas sister when all the sudden I heard a yell in front of me and when I looked up I saw an old lady fall over, she fell hard on the cement and bashed up her elbows and knees. Elder Oliveira and I ran over to help her up it scared the bejeebies out of me. Then we had a lesson with the other elders and Maria Regina, her sister, her sister’s husband, and their son. It was a pretty good lesson we we're all crammed in a tiny room basically sitting on top of one another to watch "the restoration" I swear I already have that movie memorized. So today the elders from Mofra are coming up and we're having a "special p-day" with the zone leaders it's going to be sweet. I think we're going to play settlers of catan or some other board game up in the castle, estou animado! Have a great week I'll talk to ya next week-O missionário mais Giro no mundo...Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 5/27/09

Thanks for the weekly emails I always enjoy hearing from you guys. This week was pretty good things are running pretty smoothly here, lots of stuff happened that I'm not sure I can remember but I'll try. We have been working really hard and with the lack of members here it is really difficult to get references, thus leading to a million hours of contacts and knocking but we're coming along and are still able to find a steady flow of lessons. Because our area is so huge and includes a bunch of towns, (big and small) we try to spread things out pretty evenly. Maria’s neighbor that we taught with her came to church on Sunday, his name is José António and he's an awesome guy. Very poor and humble like Maria. On Monday he called us and was like you guys are picking me up right and we were like for what? He said for church this coming Sunday! We were like well yeah of course. It was just funny to get a call that early in the week from someone who has such a desire to go to church. We also taught Maria’s sister, Maria José and her husband João. They can't read so we brought the Book of Mormon CD's for them to listen to. They fed us a BOATLOAD of Feijoada, (which is basically like a bunch of beans and big chunks of pig fat). This was the first time on my mission I had to pray while I was eating that the food would not project out of my mouth and onto their table. There was this one piece that was probably the size of a small chicken and took me like ten minutes to chew, but I got it down and I'm grateful for the people here and their willingness to feed us.Yesterday we had our last zone conference with President and Sister Terry and it was excellent. I'm going to miss them a lot they help the mission so much and are such great people. President Terry truly is a man of inspiration.I'm excited for this week it will be good, tonight we're going to teach English class and I'm pretty excited because the other day we went to São Pedro da cadeira and found a bunch more Brazilian investigators that are friends with the ones we already have out there.. There's a house just full of them so we watch the Restoration DVD, (I swear by the end of my mission I'll have that movie memorized..) and they thought it was interesting, a lot of investigators I didn't think had that much interest or would progress very much and doing just the opposite so I just need to use my "eyes of faith" and they say here and the Lord will help them progress. Well I better go have a great week!-Elder Lindquist

Elder Lindquist 5/20/09

Hey all tudo bem? This last week has been crazy and flown by so I'll try and remember everything it's been a pretty awesome week. Any news about the gender of the Nordlund baby? Last week we went to Sintra and hit up the quinta de reguleira which was sick! and we went with the missionaries/senior couple missionaries from caldes de reinha and on our way back the senior Elder said you guys should pass by this inactive member that lives in this little neighborhood over by this store, (he used to drive the sisters over there back in the day when Torres was part of their area) so a couple days later we passed by and it was amazing what happened.
She is the sweetest old lady that lives in the smallest oldest house I've ever seen and she was so excited to see us. Her cousin was there and we were able to teach them a lesson, the next day we had a big BBQ at the chapel so we invited them to come and anyone else who wanted to that they knew. The next day she, her sister, her sister’s husband, and her cousin were at the BBQ. Along with a Brazilian investigator we found over in São Pedro, (where our chapel is). The next day we had almost all of those people and more investigators in church! It was amazing. This last Sunday was the first time in ten years the sweet old lady (Maria dos santos) got to renew her covenants. She is so humble and was so excited to go back to church, the lack of transportation and distance of the chapel after the church left ten years ago made it impossible for her to go to church but this last Sunday she came and happily said the closing prayer in gospel principles class, that made me really happy.
So yeah things are going good our branch has two more baptisms this Saturday and maybe three if we can arrange the marriage/baptismal interview for Paulo, but it's getting down to the wire so I think we might have to push it back to June 6th when Maria de Graça and her daughter are marked.
Ha the other day we had a lesson with our Russian investigator ilhá and I brought my pictures to show him and he saw the picture of Mom and Dad and me sitting in front of the temple and he said that dad looks like Bruce Willis with his shaved head. Ha he's a cool kid he got an answer to his prayer about the Book of Mormon so we're trying to help him quit some bad habits and I have faith that he'll eventually be a missionary! My favorite thing to do with him is take cigarettes out of his mouth and tear them up.
Today will be fun the Elders from Mofra are coming up to play tennis with us and then Elder Peterson has to go to cacem for some meetings and the other Elders and I will go to the chapel to teach gospel principles and I'll be teaching an English class, we're just starting it this week so we'll see how it goes. I'm going to teach them how to pray in English! Well have a good week everyone I'll let you know how the baptisms and everything go next week.

Elder Lindquist 5/13/09

Hello all, so this week was good. It feels like I just talked to you a few days ago. Oh wait I did. So I don't have a lot of time because we're leaving here in a little bit to go to Sintra for the second week in a row!! Last week we hit up Palácia da pena and castelo dos mouros (I'm sending pictures) and this week we're going to check out the quinta da reguleira it's sick! It was great to talk to you sounds like everyone is doing well, congrats on the news Nat and Isaac! It's always rad to know I have another little cousin coming along even though he/she will be a year and a half old by the time I see him. Well things are going good in Torres, our conference with Elder/sister Kearon (I think that's how you spell their name) from the Seventy was great! Yesterday Paulo our investigator took us out to lunch and it was pretty good, we each got a plate that was covered with a bunch of meat. I ate a pig’s ear and two feet and a bunch of other stuff it was carne demais! This week for some reason everyone has been asking us about why our religion doesn't believe in sex before marriage which has lead to at least a dozen discussions on this topic. Elder Peterson and I are sick of teaching that this week so hopefully this coming week the lessons we have will be more in the direction of the restoration/plan of salvation. I know Christ’s church was restored to the earth by the Prophet Joseph Smith. There is so much confusion in this world about which is the doctrine of Christ and there's no doubt in my mind we have the truth. It is very easy to see that outside of Utah where everyone is Mormon. Very plain to see.Well have a great week everyone!

Elder Lindquist 5/6/09

Hey all, this week has been good. This transfer is going by WAY fast, which is a good thing it's crazy how fast it has gone. In a couple days we have a huge zone conference with all the missionaries in the mission because someone from the Seventy is coming to talk to us. Right now I'm down in Cacem and after email we're taking a train to Sintra to visit some rad castles! They are way cool looking they're up on this mountain so I'm stoked for that. Last week I went to the Convent in Mofra with Elder Perkes while we were on divisions and that was pretty cool too, I'm sending a few pictures.
The other day we decided to go down to São Pedro da cadeira to do some finding because our chapel is there and it's easier to invite people to go to church. We made our way up this big hill where this huge farm was then we decided to walk down to this little town on the other side, and we kept walking and walking till we almost reached the sea. We didn't have much luck over there but when we walked back to São Pedro we found a Brazilian family and taught them the message of the restoration. The next day one of the sons and one of the daughters of the family went to church. It was cool to find them right before we took our bus back to Torres we had just enough time to teach a lesson.
The landscapes here are stinking beautiful, I've never seen so much agricultural land it's a cool place. Oh and I forgot to tell you Paulo hasn't left yet so we're still working with him to get him baptized. He might be leaving to Holland, or Switzerland, or he might even stay here but he doesn't know when, so we're going to continue teaching him as if nothing had come up. He remarked for baptism. Our branch is on fire! We and the elders from Mofra have some one marked for baptism every weekend this month and into next month. Starting this week! No unhallowed hand can stop the work of the Lord. Have a great week! Good luck and boa sorte with baseball Dal, I'm excited to call you this Sunday! Feliz dia de Mãe!
-Elder Lindquist